Depardieu was unveiled yesterday as the newest citizen of the Estaimpuis municipal area, just over the border from France, where the film icon owns a home. The actor's journey towards becoming a self-proclaimed "citizen of the world" began last year when he was handed Russian nationality by Vladimir Putin after vowing to quit France over incoming socialist president Francois Hollande's efforts to implement a 75% income tax on revenue greater than €1m per year. The policy appears to have floundered after being ruled unconstitutional by a court in December last year, but Depardieu has continued to accumulate citizenships nonetheless. In June he told France's Le Journal du Dimanche that he now owns a grand total of seven passports.

According to the Green Card star the whole affair has been considerably exaggerated by journalists. "It's a huge misunderstanding," he told Le Figaro. "I've never left! I refuse to be trapped within borders. It is completely different. I'm a free man. I feel at home everywhere in Europe."

"We are glad you made your nest in Nechin," said Estaimpuis's municipal mayor, Daniel Senesael, at Depardieu's Belgian investiture, prior to a post-ceremony barbecue at the actor's five-bedroom chateau with 200 fellow citizens of the town. "Gérard, Estaimpuis loves you."

Depardieu's Parisian home, which he put on the market for €50m upon "quitting" France, remains on the market and the actor told Le Figaro he spent time there "regularly", adding that he "still loves" the nation of his birth. He has just finished a 20-day shoot on an untitled football film, to be released in time for next year's Fifa World Cup in Brazil.

• This article was corrected on 3 April 2014 to reflect the fact that Depardieu has become an honorary citizen of Belgium.